novelraw Chapter 254 254: Twisted Parallels - Lisette And Minato
Chapter 254 254: Twisted Parallels - Lisette And Minato
-----
After finally reaching the Tenth Layer of the Academy Dungeon, Louis, Mirai, and the rest of House Frostbane confronted the perpetrators of their misfortune. These were the ones who had trapped them here, stolen every boss they aimed to defeat, and ultimately faced them in the very building where the Final Boss of the dungeon should have awaited them.
However, the two were far more than mere agents of the Vultarn High Dominion, as Louis had feared. They were connected to the very Venerables Louis had been fighting, openly admitting they were their Apostles and carrying out their will. But that was not all.
A deeper truth emerged. Louis and Mirai realized that the strangeness of these characters came from the fact that both were their parallel selves, originating from a parallel universe, or rather, a different timeline.
The origin of Louis's regression was tied to an interdimensional artifact called the Heart of Time, the very skill he had awakened in his latest evolution. This was the artifact the Venerables wanted to retrieve from him, as it "belonged" to their master, Oblivion, an all-seeing being Louis and Mirai had never encountered but had only heard about.
The revelations continued, one after another. From the existence of parallel universes to the reality that there had been countless "remnants" of Louis, which also included Lisette herself, all pointing toward a mysterious "original" who had once taken the Heart of Time from Oblivion, triggering this series of multiversal events.
But why?
What had happened to the one who stole the Heart of Time?
What was the truth behind everything? Why were there so many parallels?
Why was Louis special compared to the rest, even when there had been thousands of "remnants"?
And even more pressing, was all of this related to his misfortune? To his life filled with suffering?
Could the game have been rigged against him from the start?
There were so many questions, so many things Louis wanted to learn and understand.
What correlation did all of this even have with the game he had played, Sinners Academy, or the Mirai who had literally come out of the TV and eaten him?
There were too many questions. They made him furious. He wanted to interrogate these two bastards, but he knew there was no time for that.
Nor would these two aberrant fakers ever agree to sit down and talk. They were hell-bent on torturing and killing them. It seemed they drew pleasure from slaughtering their parallel selves, whom they found utterly disgusting.
And to be fair, the feeling was mutual.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Lisette laughed monstrously as she swung her titanic claws toward Louis and took off into the skies, moving faster than anyone but Louis could detect.
"Heart of Time – Frozen Time!"
The Heart of Time merged with hundreds of Ice Runes, conjuring the Ancient Frozen Time Spell that his grandfather had created and recorded in the ancient spell books he had once read. It was a spell he had always dreamed of imitating.
Now, he could.
TRUUUM!
"NGH?!"
Lisette's dozens of red eyes widened in shock as her attack was instantly canceled. Her entire body froze within a barrier made of frozen time.
"I got her, now—"
"HEH~"
However, Lisette smiled. In that moment, a giant red claw descended, smashing Louis and all his friends down into the planet's surface. The impact generated a massive explosion that shattered the ground and sent them plunging into the depths of the planet's core.
"NNNGHHH!"
Louis screamed as he realized Minato's aberrant demon form had caught them off guard and driven them deep underground.
The scorching magma was so incredibly hot that it melted even his own body. Everyone else agonized and burned, unable to fight back as nightmare flames consumed their minds.
They were being burned both outside and inside. Their hearts were invaded by Minato, their souls tortured by his curse transferred through that initial attack, and the molten core seared them all.
"EVERYONEEEEE!!!"
Louis screamed, unleashing all his power and stacking every skill at once. He grew immensely stronger in an instant.
"ETERNAL WINTER!!!"
FLAAASH!
Ice froze the center of the planet instantly. He then conjured a powerful Healing Spell, stacking several skills and inverse skills simultaneously. Their bodies rapidly began to heal.
At the same time, he used his own power to help them free themselves from the consuming nightmares.
However...
"Hoh, so you could survive that."
"Can you survive this?"
Lisette and Minato hated each other, but they showed no mercy to Louis or Mirai.
The Dragon Princess raised her giant claws, conjuring a massive sphere of corrupted white void.
The Demon Prince lifted his hands, conjuring endless nightmarish chaos compressed into a pitch-black star.
"Fusion Technique – All-Consuming Star of Creation and Destruction."
"...?!"
Before Louis could react, the gigantic star crashed down onto him and everyone else, disintegrating them to a subatomic level.
BOOOMMM!!!
Nothing remained but a destroyed planet rapidly breaking into fragments across outer space within the tenth layer of the dungeon... except for the two Apostles.
"..."
"..."
Their eyes grew sharper. Louis and everyone else had indeed died...
And yet...
"He has moved."
"So a complete destruction attack does not work?"
"We will have to keep trying until something does."
"We should capture him and extract the heart, no?"
"No, that will not work. Now hurry. We are transferring between timelines."
Both nodded and conjured a Cosmic Sigil on their foreheads, which transferred their souls toward the next timeline, specifically designed to chase after Louis's regressions.
♢♢♢♢
"Aahh!"
Louis woke up, gasping for air. He found himself in Limbo once more, looking around and realizing he was once again just a soul.
"I-I died?"
He looked at his own hands and noticed how powerful his soul had become compared to his past regression. It was thousands of times larger.
However... even with all the power he had gained, he had still lost.
"How could we be annihilated so easily?" he thought, clenching his teeth. "They are not at our level at all, but much higher... at least Tier 3? No, that power was even beyond. They are definitely stronger than Soma and..."
His eyes widened as he realized Lisette and Minato had traveled across the cosmos and other timelines for so long that they might easily stand at the same level as the Venerables from Earth, the Tier 0 Beyonders.
"As strong as the Abyssal Mother?!" he groaned. "If that is the case... it is impossible, isn't it? It depends, though. How far will I go now? Or... huh?"
Suddenly, Louis realized he was not moving. He remained floating in the River of Time. Limbo now felt emptier than ever before, without the seats or the specters of purgatory below.
He understood why the seats had disappeared. They were likely plotting something against him. But why were the specters gone?
"What is down there? Is it really... Purgatory?"
Louis felt something shimmering within his chest, a crystallized heart, the power of Time itself.
His eyes widened as he realized the truth.
"The Heart of Time is allowing me to choose a path? I can go to the River of Time or... there?"
What was Purgatory? Louis had no idea. It could be like hell, or maybe a netherworld, or perhaps none of those things at all.
From within his soul, Louis noticed that the Immortal Mountain Realm remained completely intact.
"What?"
His eyebrows twitched for a moment. It seemed the Realm was untouched, and life inside continued as usual for everyone there.
His eyes realized something important.
"I can bring anything I put inside my realms?"
Could he bring his friends? Was that possible?
Could he save them next time and stop them from dying?
But could he even manage to fight with everything while also keeping his friends safe, when the whole point of their training was to grow stronger together?
"Louis? What do you plan on doing now?" Niflheim's voice echoed.
"Master?" Belladine was also concerned.
"I am still thinking, honestly," Louis sighed. "What to do... Indeed, what should I do? If we are fighting Tier 0 beings, the only thing we can do is escape... but there is no escape. I need to grow stronger... How many lives will that take? No... I do not care if I die, but... I cannot let them die."
"However, you would be insulting their pride and effort if you protected them after all this time, right?" Niflheim asked, sighing.
"..."
Louis remained in thoughtful silence. His soul now resembled his true dragon form, gigantic and intimidating.
"You miss him? Mister fairy?" Belladine asked.
"He was a son of a bitch, but he was always there to insult me and... somehow, that gave me the determination to return," Louis muttered, gazing into the emptiness divided between Heaven and Purgatory.
Louis realized there was something more painful than dying himself.
Indeed, the most painful thing was watching everyone else die helplessly while he could do nothing about it.
How long would such suffering last?
FLASH!
Suddenly, his Spirals reacted to the storm of emotions swirling inside him. The Incarnations of all his friends appeared before him. His eyes widened.
"You guys..."
Louis felt their presences within them.
His friends.
House Frostbane.
"Agustina..."
"Anastasia..."
"Timothy..."
"Zorba..."
"Selene..."
"Melisa..."
"Mirai..."
They were here. His connections had never left him. They remained. Their memories would never die, and as long as they stayed with him, they would never disappear.
Niflheim remained silent as she admired the Incarnations circling Louis, pointing their weapons toward the tip of his head and crowning him.
FLASH!
Louis let it happen. He closed his eyes as the Incarnations suddenly melted into liquid iron, fusing into a crown above his head.
This even included his own Incarnations. All of them did the same, even the Crownless Heir and its parallel.
"What is happening?!" Belladine was shocked.
Handy appeared behind them. She had yet to speak, but her eyes widened as she admired Louis, tears streaming down her face.
"It seems the Incarnations themselves have decided to combine..." Niflheim said. "I see... Perhaps they reacted to his endless desire not to lose everything he had built..."
FLUOSH!
The crown gleamed brightly with iron and gold colors and countless jewels, each jewel shaped like the helmet or head of each Incarnation.
Louis heard something. Andromeda's voice... No, the System.
[All of your Incarnations have responded to your Desire.]
[Because you have reached a high level of Spiral of Fate, your many Incarnations have decided to refine themselves into a single form.]
[You have awakened the Primordial Incarnation: Crown of Eternity – Ouroboros Sovereign]
Tears streamed from Louis's soul as he felt an immense surge of power spread through his entire existence. Echoes of all those he had lost now resonated within him, forging and further enhancing themselves through his Cultivation Methods, Skills, and Spiral Abilities.
Then, his Three Cores—Heart, Spirit, and Will—resonated, connecting with the crown and forging another Ascendancy Law Ring. The first two, which Louis had not truly detected until now, revealed their names: [Regressor] and [King].
Ascendancy Law Rings were Divine Authorities originating from Yggdrasil, capable of warping space, time, and the laws of reality, granting immense power.
The Cultivation Method his grandfather had transferred to him was such a power, and as he evolved as a dragon, Louis had slowly awakened it even further, automatically forging Ascendancy Laws.
But why King? He was perplexed, yet perhaps it was that very authority that allowed his Incarnations to merge into his crown, now resting above his head and refining itself as both his Incarnation and his Soul Treasure.
This meant he could "equip" his own Incarnation and gain powerful stat boosts, growing even stronger than he had ever imagined.
And then, before his eyes, information about this new Incarnation Soul Treasure appeared, tied to his Spiral of Fate, currently at Tier 4.
-----
{Primordial Incarnation}: [Crown of Eternal Regret – Ouroboros Sovereign (Tier 4)]
The ultimate fusion of all your Incarnations and the bonds you refused to let die.
Grants perfect recollection of every timeline you have lived through, without the mental strain of previous regressions.
Allows you to temporarily summon "Echoes" of your fallen comrades at 70% of their peak power, retaining their personalities and battle instincts.
All Incarnations you have ever had can be summoned using this Crown, increasing their power by a further 200%.
Aside from the Spiral of Fate's growth, the crown can grow stronger separately by accumulating Timeline Fragments.
Timeline Fragments: 1/3
{Stat Boosts}
{Passive Effects}
Cycle Breaker — Any fatal attack that would kill you or your summoned Echoes has a chance to instead rewind only that specific moment for them, at the cost of Time Essence.
{Active Effects}
Devour the Future — Consume a portion of an upcoming timeline's possibilities to instantly empower yourself or an ally, accelerating growth at the risk of destabilizing the current timeline further.
{Bonus Effects}
All Stats +200%.
Reduces 50% of Soul Damage Taken.
Increases Spiral Abilities Power by +200%.
Increases EXP earned by +500%.
All Allies receive +100% Stat Boost when their Bond is strong.
All Allies receive +30% All Damage Reduction when their Bond is strong.
All Allies receive +50% Damage to "Enemies" when their Bond is strong.
-----
Louis realized what this was.
A way to continue growing. This was what the sacrifice of all his Incarnations had given him.
This was what the Ascendancy Laws of the Regressor and the King had forged for him, based on his own deepest desire.
To not be "trapped" forever in an endless loop.
And to eventually break free.
Louis closed his eyes, ignoring Purgatory.
Perhaps he could gain power from it, but he would also be abandoning everything he had pursued for something he had no clear understanding of.
So for now...
He looked into the light before him and moved forward.
"No matter how much it takes."
"No matter how many times I must die."
"I will continue moving on..."
"Until I win."
FLAAASH!
♢♢♢♢
Louis opened his eyes again.
"..."
And then he realized something... the time he could regress had once more moved forward.
Too much.
"Back again?"
"You sure took your sweet time, Louis."
Louis's eyes widened as he saw Lisette and Minato sitting on the sofa, the corpse of the Number 1 Hero of the Tenth Layer freshly laid on the floor.
Louis had regressed... barely a few minutes back into the past!
His friends were surprised these people were here and that the boss was already dead, but even more shocked by these two.
"Hm?" Lisette's eyes grew sharper and reptile-like. "Something... has changed?"
"What do you mean?" Minato asked.
"Something— Ah!"
Lisette screamed as she saw what Louis summoned. A crown appeared floating above his head, gleaming with the power of many Spirals combined together.
Almost a dozen!
FLAAASH!
Each of the Spirals' powers expanded into a thread, connecting to everyone present. Suddenly, memories and consciousness from past timelines—Echoes—transferred into his friends.
Then they realized what was happening.
"Ah!" Mirai cried. "Louis...!"
However, Mirai was the only one who could freshly recall everything correctly. His friends only received vague memories, like fragments of dreams.
It should be enough.
"Everyone, there is no time to explain. They are coming!"
RUMBLE!
A gigantic attack came from above, but this time Louis had predicted it. He used Time Freeze like before and then bent space, escaping with everyone inside his aura.
BOOOMMM!!!
The entire Pinnacle Tower exploded, and the surface of the planet below cracked open. Enormous fissures spread everywhere.
"We already died?!" Mirai asked. "So soon?"
"They are strong!" Louis said. "Immensely so. I calculate they are Tier 0!"
"What?!" Timothy screamed. "We have no chance against Tier 0s!"
"I know, but I have a plan!" Louis said, looking down. "Follow me!"
"W-What are you planning?!" Agustina asked.
"Just follow me!"
Louis encased everyone in a barrier of his aura and flew away. Lisette and Minato began warping space and reality, rapidly giving chase.
"Where do you think you are going, Louis?!"
"Hahaha, you have not even mastered space traveling. You cannot escape from us reality warpers."
"What makes you think I have not?!"
Louis quickly used Wanderer of Limbo, disappearing with his friends.
He escaped!
"Fool."
Or not.
TRUUUM!
"Nnnggh?!"
Louis was quickly thrown back to where he was, crashing into the planet's surface as an entire continent exploded and vanished.
BOOOMMM!!!
"Louis! What is happening?!" Agustina panicked even more.
"I attempted to escape to Limbo but... I was blocked. As I thought, they are not the only ones trapping us here!" Louis said. "I saw it... when we attempted teleportation, there was a gigantic cube forged from stars themselves encasing this entire dungeon!"
"W-What?!" Timothy was shocked. "What does that even mean?"
"It means one of the Venerables is keeping us caged here. It is impossible to escape through space, only through time..." Louis said. "I see...! The only authority they have no power over is Time! It is our key to win, to escape..."
"What do we do now?!" Anastasia asked. "They are almost here!"
"...We will dive into this Dungeon's Core and snatch it!" Louis roared.
"W-What?!"
Everyone was shocked. It felt as if Louis was making no sense at all!
Why would taking the core help if there was a cage outside anyway?
Or perhaps...
Louis had other plans.
"I will carry over your consciousness and memories to the next timeline... Everyone, we may die dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of times until we win... but I assure you, I will never give up!"
"...!!!"
"...?!"
"..."
"So please... believe in me! Release all your power... and fuse it with mine!"
Timothy, Anastasia, Agustina, Melisa, and Selene fell silent, while Mirai did not hesitate. They were still shocked that things had changed so drastically.
"Please, everyone!"
However, when Mirai spoke afterward, they snapped back to reality and nodded without hesitation. Even Timothy knew when something was so serious that even Louis was asking for their help.
FLAAASH!
Their power surged, fusing with Louis and enhancing his abilities even further.
Lisette and Minato were already right behind them, combining their power in the same technique that had annihilated them before.
"Whatever you are planning, it is futile."
"You cannot win."
The giant sphere of light and darkness fell, but Louis once more used Wanderer of Limbo, piercing the dimensional membranes before the attack could land.
Lisette and Minato gave chase, tearing through space itself to find them, almost about to grab Louis's tail. Only for him to turn into a storm of ashes made of light, firing hundreds of beams of light and darkness, spreading curses around them, and launching dozens of powerful spells as well.
He also used the power of Inverse Pandora on Wanderer of Limbo, conjuring the Prisoner of the Abyss Skill and temporarily trapping them in a Purgatory Dimension where specters and chains constantly hindered them.
Lisette and Minato were shocked that Louis could pull off something like that at his level and began rapidly shattering through the dimension.
However, it still bought Louis around a minute, allowing him to reach his destination by once more shattering space in front of him.
"We are almost there! Hold on tight!"
"Where are we going, Lord Louis?!" Zorba asked in disbelief.
"I told you! We are taking the core of this dungeon!" Louis roared, smashing space one last time and appearing in a completely white void.
"Oooh?!"
Everyone gasped as they found themselves in this white void. At the center stood a gigantic jewel the size of a skyscraper, exuding starlight and divinity from within.
"LOUIS!"
"MIRAI!"
"YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE!"
The two creeps approached, so Louis immediately used his Heart of Time, performing the reverse of Freezing Time called "Burning Time"!
FLUOSH!
Time essence itself was being burned, accelerating Louis's speed to ridiculous levels and allowing him to reach the core in a split second, barely faster than his pursuers.
He touched the core, and with everyone infusing their power into him, he began to refine the entire Dungeon Core.
"What do you think you are doing?"
"Are you stupid or something? What is this dungeon even going to help you with?"
The two reached him in less than ten seconds, firing dozens of the same attack that had once disintegrated him.
Louis accelerated the time around him by expanding a Realm and a Domain, barely managing to increase the few seconds he had left to half a minute.
"Come on, come on...! Almost there! Come onnnnn!"
Noticing how desperate Louis was, everyone roared together, burning through their life force and Spirals as the slow refinement of the core became incredibly fast.
"DIE, REMNANT!"
Lisette and Minato roared together, creating a giant formation of black and white stars and trapping Louis and his friends inside.
Blinding light and eternal dark chaos consumed them and...
"Almost... there...!!!"
BOOOMMM!!!
♢♢♢♢
"Did I do it?"
Louis opened his eyes to Limbo once more, sitting cross-legged as he floated in the void. He channeled his consciousness into his Heart Realm itself and...
Within the Fantasy Sea, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"I-I did it!"
A beautiful, gigantic Dungeon Core floated in midair above the sea. As Louis flew there with a Fantasium Avatar and touched the core...
FLAAASH!
An immense amount of power surged, carrying the weight of nine layers, nine different fantasy realms stacked together.
Louis had succeeded in stealing the Sinners Academy Dungeon, even if it had cost his life!
"If I took the dungeon... is the tenth layer...?"
For a moment he hoped his friends would still be alive there, but they were not present. It seemed he had taken everything that belonged to the dungeon.
This was also good, because bringing his friends along would have meant bringing Lisette and Minato as well.
"Did you do it?" Niflheim asked. "Incredible. You stole the dungeon?!"
"Wooow!" Belladine was shocked. "Amazing, Master! But what are you going to do with it?"
"I have already done it. It is my Soul Treasure now. By equipping it..."
FLUOSH!
Louis's soul suddenly felt immensely more powerful. Divinity flowed everywhere, at least tenfold higher than before. His Fantasium overflowed ridiculously across his body and beyond...
"With this entire dungeon then..."
He quickly merged the Dungeon Core with the Fantasy Sea, further expanding the dungeon's interior and "upgrading" everything within it.
"Now..."
He tapped the crown, summoning the evolved form of the Necromancer, the Lich, made with golden light and ashen silver.
"Now that you have been automatically upgraded to Tier 4 alongside the crown, let us use your Ultimate Skill, Undead Legion."
The Lich nodded, tapping its ghostly staff as it began to channel all the souls Louis had captured and sealed using Soul Sealing.
High-Level Undead were summoned, overflowing with ghostly powers and nether flames of green color, skeletal and spectral in appearance.
They ranged from Martial Beasts and Monsters to Star Beasts, Cultivators, and even Superheroes.
Because of his Crown Incarnation enhancing their power, they were now as strong as Rank 7 Monsters.
"Echoes too."
He summoned the Echoes of his friends. Mirai, Zorba, Timothy, Anastasia, Agustina, Selene, and Melisa all emerged as spiritual beings, copies of them carrying 70% of their total power.
So far, he could summon two of each, and that was because he now had two Timeline Fragments...
"Can I summon an additional Echo with every Timeline Fragment I obtain?"
It would be too broken if that was the case, but... the crown by itself was something that should not even exist, and yet it did.
A creation born from all of Louis's efforts and trials, from his suffering and grief, from his eternal regret.
"Well, whatever. You too, all of you."
Louis summoned the rest of his Familiars and sent them inside his Realm and into the Dungeon.
"Go grind as much as possible. I need to run some experiments."
Louis meditated in the middle of Limbo as he sent all his Undead, Echoes, and Familiars ahead.
He accelerated the time inside by fiftyfold, his current limit.
His Familiars quickly entered the layers and started killing the monsters inside, while the Lich turned them into new Undead.
He infused Fantasium into the Dungeon and further accelerated monster spawning.
And eventually...
[Level Up!]
"It works!"
[Level Up!]
"It really works..."
[Level Up!]
Louis had discovered a "hax" to enhance his leveling! By sending his familiars inside his own Realm, they were able to share the EXP they earned with him, allowing him to level up passively.
At his current level, leveling was slow. He had gained three levels after his monsters had ground for a whole month. But it was more than enough. He was willing to stay here and cultivate his soul in the meantime, absorbing the essence of Limbo.
However... he knew, deep down, that it would not be so easy.
Crack, crack...!
CRASH!
The longer he stayed in Limbo, the stranger and more bizarre everything became.
"Shit."
Cracks appeared in the void like shattered glass as gigantic eyes stared at him from beyond the dimensional boundaries.
:: LOUIS... DRAKEHEART... ::
And the thing knew exactly who he was.
"Hah, I guess I really cannot stay here as long as I want."
He had only managed to stay for a day and a half before something emerged, likely...
What he feared the most.
A Venerable.
RUMBLE!
Giant sharp fangs started tearing through reality, biting and devouring Limbo as if it were a snack.
:: STAND STILL... AND ACCEPT... YOUR FATE... ::
:: BE GLAD... TO BE DEVOURED... BY ME... ::
"No thanks."
Louis quickly flew into the light and disappeared.
FLASH!
♢♢♢♢
Leveling like this was one of Louis's ideas, but it was not his main plan.
His main plan was this.
"AGAIN?!"
"WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING?!"
Lisette and Minato were shocked that Louis had already flown to the core once more, refining it even faster than before.
This time, the two attempted to restrain him with their chains before killing him, trying to extract his Heart of Time.
However...
Because everyone had used their life force to refine this gigantic core, including Louis...
BOOOMMM!!!
They died on their own terms.
"He died?! H-He killed himself and his allies?" Lisette asked. "I thought he was softer..."
"Me too," Minato said. "It seems... he is not as weak as we imagined."
"But what could he be planning by taking the core twice?" Lisette asked, raising an eyebrow. "He will not grow stronger by having two dungeons."
"...He is desperate. Next timeline, we just kill him instantly so he cannot obtain the core right away," Minato said. "Let us go with this approach. After all, the Seat of Devouring Hunger awaits outside this dimension and Limbo. It will catch him if he dares to stay too long. Louis is cornered, and there is no way he can win, Heart of Time or not."
"Very well. Let us get this done with," Lisette nodded.
Thus, an endless cycle of deaths and rebirths began.
-----